Spring Rain [Would Have Been Nice Today!]

This morning four eager youngsters participated in Story Hour. Madelyn even came all decked out in a raincoat with a hood and her cute rain boots. Fletcher had his boots on also. I advanced our weather study by giving each child a pack of picture cards with related words at the bottom so they may begin to associate weather symbols with words. We first played a recognition game where I held up one of my cards and they had to find the matching one as we talked about that symbol. I then went to the weather board and asked them to find a card that told us about today's weather. As there was confusion over whether or not it was raining we decided to go outside and take a look [no windows in our basement room].  That was a good experience as the children could really look at the clouds and they also discovered it was still rather chilly outside.

We then hurried back downstairs to our room and we promptly produced correct cards to complete our  weather board. I also started another new idea to encourage children to participate; each time a correct answer was given, or full participation took place in an activity, the child received a token which their adult was allowed to hold onto for them. At the end of the morning we counted our tokens and they were redeemed for a small prize.

Our first book of the morning was Splish! Splash! : A Book About Rain by Josepha Sherman. 

I used selected pages of this book and the children learned how rain forms in the clouds, we discussed what rain does for the Earth, what sort of puddles it causes [I learned that some of the children don't like mud because it sticks to their shoes and hands [?] and is difficult to wash off!], and that all the water we use for baths/showers, cooking and to drink comes from rain. It was a bit difficult for them to figure out what rain does for the trees and flowers, but after some very quizzical looks I think some of them got the concept.

Next came the beginning steps of our project. On a blue sheet of construction paper we glued cotton balls that we gently pulled apart [another learning experience for some as they first tended to pull too hard and pulled the balls completely apart] to form clouds.  They were very cute once the children got the idea. We also glued on a cupcake paper umbrella with a pipe cleaner stem.

Fortunately I had a bucket of soapy water for those little gluey fingers!

Then came another book. This one was titled It's Raining! by Nadia Higgins.

Again I used just selected pages. It reviewed some of the concepts from the first book [had a great illustration of small droplets coming together and then falling as raindrops] and also added some new concepts, such as leaving a picnic because of rain, a thundercloud, and then reviewed a concept from our St. Pat's Day lesson by talking about a rainbow. The children remembered that quite well!

I then brought out some instruments and we made "rain music" with sandpaper blocks and maracas. We learned to rub the blocks in small circles and to gently shake the maracas side to side to create a rain sound. One of my children became quite enthused with the maracas and nearly clobbered another... so we had to refresh the idea of gently side to side.  But no one was hurt and it gave the adults a chuckle.
With our rain band accompanying us we used the tune of "London Bridge is Falling Down" and sang about the rain. The maraca players even became good at doing a "drip, drip, plop" rhythm at the end of the lines.  We then traded instruments, so everyone got to play the blocks and the maracas, and sang it again.

Lastly we finished our pictures by drawing ourselves [a bit of a challenge for some, but good fine motor skills development] by our umbrellas and then dipping our finger into some pearly blue paint and touching it to the paper to form raindrops. Two of the children chose to leave their pictures for the classroom bulletin board, but the other two wanted to share with someone at home.

After counting our earned chips they were turned in for prizes and then the children were given their "homework": a coloring sheet with a cute, smiling raindrop and another with a little child under an umbrella with falling raindrops.

Next week we will pursue the theme of Easter. Please bring anything that relates to that theme.

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Children's Librarian,
Mitzi Manthey